Archaeologists examine ancient human remains and artifacts, revealing insights into early Sahara inhabitants and their cultural history.
Ethiopian scientists, once sidelined in their own land, are now leading the charge to uncover humanity’s deep past. This effort began in the 1980s when Berhane Asfaw, Ethiopia’s first paleoanthropologist, returned home and helped establish a local lab to keep and study fossils in-country. While studying in the US, he had discovered that every fossil found in Ethiopia was exported abroad for research. Today, the lab he founded at the National Museum of Ethiopia has the knowledge and tools to research these fossils locally. Currently, that lab houses the world’s richest collection of early human remains, including “Lucy” and “Selam.” Asfaw and other local scholars have now taken the lead in researching humanity’s origins and their findings have led to a better understanding of our ancestors’ past.